Some Saskatchewan farmers say they’re caught in the crossfire in the running rights war between CN Rail and Omnitrax.
The farmers want to ship producer cars on the rail line that runs between Birch Hills and Prince Albert.
The 21.9 kilometre line was recently bought from CN by local governments and then transferred to Omnitrax to become part of its Carlton Trail Railway system.
Now farmers along the line have accused CN of being unco-operative in their attempts to acquire producer cars, a charge rejected by CN.
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“They’re just playing games,” said Earl Mickelson of Hagen, Sask., chair of the Birch Hills Producer Car Group.
While CN has been talking a lot lately about working closely with local communities and farmers, he said, the company’s actions in this case belie those words.
“This is not a very good example of their intentions.”
The two railways are at odds over Omnitrax’s application to the Canadian Transportation Agency for running rights over 2,400 km of CN track in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Mickelson thinks that disagreement is hurting his group’s efforts to get producer cars.
“I feel that’s a big part of it.”
Gary Rennick, chief operating officer of Omnitrax, declined to speculate on CN’s motives in the Birch Hills situation, other than to say the company’s actions speak for themselves.
“You can draw your own conclusions as well as I can,” he said.
“It’s obvious they’re not going to be very co-operative in anything with us.”
CN Rail spokesperson Jim Feeny denied that CN is being unco-operative and rejected suggestions that the running rights dispute is affecting the Birch Hills situation.
He said CN’s policy on short lines is to deal directly with shippers — in this case farmers — on issues of rates and service, and not the rail company operating the short line.
“The policy is the same and has been the same for some time, whether it’s Omnitrax or any of the other short lines that are operating in Canada,” he said.
Producer car shippers on the Birch Hills line will be treated the same as other producer car shippers, he added.
CN supplies cars
According to Mickelson, the problems arose when a member of the producer group recently ordered seven producer cars from CN. Even though Omnitrax owns the line, producer cars must be ordered through CN.
He said CN wanted to deliver the cars from the east end of the line, which connects to CN tracks.
But it also said it would only supply two cars at a time because the designated producer car loading site at Birch Hills is for two cars only. It also said a minimum 30-car train run was in effect, meaning it would have to make four train runs to provide seven cars.
The producer group says CN should provide the full complement of cars to Omnitrax at Warman, just north of Saskatoon, and then run them up the Carlton Trail track to Prince Albert and then on to the Birch Hills line.
Rennick said his company, which has agreed to provide storage bins and loading equipment to the producer car group, is ready to do that, whether it’s one, nine or 30 producer cars.
With 22 km of track available on the line in question, he said, there’s no reason to limit car supply to two cars at a time.
“We’re prepared to load them right off the main line. That doesn’t cause us a problem. It shouldn’t cause CN any.”
Rennick said CN is making things unnecessarily complicated.
“To me it’s pretty simple. Give us the cars at Saskatoon. We’ll take them up there, spot them and move them out.”
Feeny said as far as he knew, there had been no direct communication between CN and the producer car shippers.
He said CN has received an inquiry about rates from Omnitrax, but responded that it will discuss rates and service only with the shipper, not the short-line carrier.
He added a number of safety, policy and regulatory issues must be dealt with before a new producer car loading site can be approved.
